Guandolo returns from two-week suspension full of support

WESTON – Cypress Bay football coach Mark Guandolo wasn’t at his team’s season opener Friday night. He wasn’t allowed to be. But the mustached legend’s image was everywhere, and the support was overwhelming.

Meanwhile, big-head cardboard cutout of Guandolo’s face floated in the stands. Two of them were held up in the human tunnel that welcomed players onto the field. A white homemade banner stretched across the fence in front of the home bleachers read “This One’s for you, G!”

And afterward, the quarterback whose helmet Guandolo slapped in an attempt to fire him up during a preseason game two weeks earlier, spoke glowingly of that same man whom the Broward County School Board suspended two weeks for doing so.

It’s been a difficult two weeks for Lightning football, especially for QB Lucas Tellefsen and Guandolo, but Friday’s 27-0 rout of Boyd Anderson and the return of Guandolo today, Monday, should help them put behind an incident that was blown out of proportion – much like the Guandolo fatheads held up by fans Friday.

The punishment seemed to be based more on the reaction from observers than the actual action by Guandolo. After Friday’s win, interim coach Joe Courcelle, who will now return to coaching just the offensive line, and Tellefsen talked about the win and two weeks without Guandolo, who wasn’t allowed to attend practices or team functions.

The next goal is to create meaningful moments for the Miami Heat, meaningful playoff moments, after his first season with the team produced only a lottery finish. But for Luol Deng, what transpired Saturday in South Africa made the start of the 2015-16 basketball cycle particularly meaningful.